Disneyland Resort Photo Update - 11/08/13 Disneyland

Contributing photographer Jason of disneygeek.com sends us these photos from his trip to the parks on Friday, November 8, 2013. The Holiday season officially kicks off next week, but most of the decorations are up and the festivities started today. In this posting I will take a look at Downtown Disney and Disneyland. Disney California Adventure will have its own posting.
I decided to walk to the parks from the Mickey and Friends Garage through Downtown Disney. The ice skating rink and Winter Village is being constructed in Downtown Disney. This year the tree is in the middle of the ice rink.

Not sure I mentioned/saw this map before. I know I saw the one by World of Disney but there is also one near the Lego Store.

Some light decorations for Veterans Day weekend.. some flags in the planters around Downtown Disney.

D-Street is decorated.

A pressed penny machine near D-Street.

Some holiday treats

Cars Land inspired banners line Downtown Disney again this year.

Starbucks is inching along.

Snow is up on the Disneyland entrance

An Annual Passholder screening of Oliver and Company tonight, I had to skip it, too many items on my agenda already today.

This weekend they are taping segments for the Disney Parks Christmas Parade that will air on ABC Christmas morning.

Where the host will be standing for the parade.

Goofy posing for a picture for me in his winter sweater (it was nearly 80 degrees today by the way).

One of a couple trees in the Market House

The renovation work on Main Street has wrapped up.

The Dapper Dans performing their holiday concert.

The hub was taken over with equipment for the taping this weekend.

The Castle has some extra bows and no ice lighting yet, they leave that off for the filming.

The Carrousel has reopened and looks great!

Dumbo is still being worked on.

Frozen has replaced Tangled in Fantasyland.

And the line was long especially considering the movie does not come out for several weeks!

Olaf is atop the roof and entertains those waiting or passing by.

Toontown is decorated and celebrating the season.

The car near Mickeys is gone, is he out for a spin?

A Christmas Fantasy Parade kicked off today. The regular teddy bear has returned to the opening float. And I think the wreath being open is a slight tweak.

Duffy is now on the mail room float displacing Pluto.

The Winter Wonderland segment features skiers this year.

Pluto atop the gingerbread house with Goofy, replacing Max who is no longer in the parade.

The Dwarfs have been cut this year.

Took a cruise on Small World Holiday. Nothing too different jumped out at me. Here are some random pictures from the voyage.

Bobble head Elvis is back.

Next stop the Jingle Jangle Jamboree at the Big Thunder Ranch. Chip was the greeter.

Reindeer games have returned.

Pin trading near the gift cart.

A small line for Santa this afternoon.

Cookie decorating has returned.

Billy Hill and the Holiday Hillbillies have returned. This will be their final season though. They retire from the park on Jan 6th after 20 years.

A clip from the show featuring their Orange Blossom Special Christmas Medley.

Goofy and Pluto out mingling with the crowd during the performance.

The Country Bears have returned again this year. A great finale!!

Mickey was out roaming around too.

Santa meeting with guests, the line was minimal this afternoon maybe 5-10 minutes.

The queue for Santa is ready to go, not in use this afternoon thanks to the light crowd on opening day.

Mickey and Pluto goofying around. Mickey was pretending to throw a ball and Pluto would look for it.

As you can see it was pleasant to meet the characters too. They were just roaming around and you could interact, take pictures, and get autographs. A great environment!

No reindeer again this year, just the Christmas goats.

All was quiet and looked about the same in the cabin.

The holiday popcorn bucket choices.

New Orleans Square features a mask over the entrance this year.

Kind of sad not to be able to visit the Angel Courtyard this year since it is now gone and off limits to regular guests (it will be the new entrance for Club 33 if you had not heard).

Some work going on to the facade above the Pirates exit.

The backside of the mask... seems they could have done something here.. it looked odd to me.

The Jungle Cruise becomes the Jingle Cruise next week for the holiday season. Some decorations were up today.

The boats will get new names for the season.

After this I headed to DCA, that will be in its own posting soon. But now back to Disneyland later in the evening.

A holiday special offering at the Village Haus.

The Christmas cups.

I arrived at the Jamboree just after the Billies wrapped up.

Santa had no wait. We chatted a bit. The Country Bears also paid a quick visit to him leading a young guest (no picture since I was on the back side).

Mickey had time to spend with some four legged friends.

The Country Bears and a Cast Member stopped for a picture for me.

Found myself outside the Golden Horseshoe looking in..

Small World Holiday lit up for the season.

There is a new quarter hour projection show this year.

A video of the new show.

Believe in Holiday Magic opened tonight

Thanks to some fog that rolled in it was an obstructed view.

A couple of snow pictures to end on.

Hope you enjoyed this highlight tour of the Disneyland Resort. For additional photos and details from this trip you can check out the full Disneyland Update I posted on my site, http://disneygeek.com Also be sure to follow me on twitter @disneygeekcom for pictures from the parks.